Late Monday afternoon El Paso declared a Strained Operating Condition for a draft condition on its entire system, effective with Tuesday’s gas day. The imbalance tolerance was set initially at 10%, but El Paso said it will reduce the tolerance “if conditions do not sufficiently improve. Increased loads on the system with takes in excess of scheduled quantities in combination with underperformance in the supply areas due to pipeline/producer interconnect maintenance and equipment outages due to high ambient [temperature] conditions and power failures is resulting in a draft to the system that could lead to a low linepack condition. Additionally, the power failures in the Permian/West Texas area are impacting compressor station operations and Washington Ranch [storage facility] is currently down as a result of a loss of power.” Interruptible Storage Service was suspended Tuesday until further notice.

Following FERC approval, Columbia Gulf said it expects to complete the sale of a portion of its Bluewater System offshore and onshore facilities to Tennessee on or before June 30 and that the transfer of assets will be effective July 1. See the bulletin board for Columbia Gulf’s Master List of Interconnect points that will no longer be available for nominations on its system and must be nominated through Tennessee.

Gulf South declared a force majeure event effective Tuesday and anticipated to continue through Wednesday. The declaration affects the Area 8 to Expansion Area 16 Scheduling Group, Gulf South said.

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